Saturday, April 28, 2018

"the material nature of men having been . . . made an enemy of sin"

"His nature or essence is double, because as mediator
between God and men (1 Tim 2.5), he must fittingly restore the natural
relationship to the mediated parties by his existence as both, so that—in him
and through him in very truth, having united the earthly realm with the
heavenly (Eph 1.10)—he may through his holy flesh taken from us as a firstfruit
perfectly make us sharers in the divine nature (2 Pet 1.4), the material
nature of men having been deified and made an enemy of sin [(τὴν ὑλικὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν, τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἁμαρτίας πολεμωθεῖσαν, τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ προσαγαγὼν σωθεῖσαν, φιλωθεῖσάν τε καὶ θεωθεῖσαν, the
material nature of men—the [nature] that had had war made upon it/been treated as an enemy on account of/been ravaged by sin—having been ([he] presenting [it] to [his] God and Father) saved, befriended, and even deified)], not by an identity
of essence, but by the ineffable power of his becoming human.Hence he is known in fact and not in name
alone to be at the same time both God and man."